People|Applied Quantitative Lab|Faculty|Psychology

Maria Magdalena Llabre – Dr. Llabre is Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology. She is also Director of Biobehavioral Statistics at the Behavioral Medicine Research Center. Her interest in applied statistics and cardiovascular behavioral medicine has led to applications of latent variable modeling to issues of measurement, mechanisms, and change processes. She is an investigator in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL; N. Schneiderman, PI) where she has studied the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences and their association to chronic diseases in adulthood. Recently, she is exploring the role of the Spanish language in the Hispanic Paradox (Que Pasa U?). A newly funded project with Dr. Patrice Saab (UQuest) will train low income minority children in the practice of asking questions as a mechanism for promoting interest in STEM.

Sierra Bainter – Dr. Bainter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her program of methodological research is focused on two key issues; these are improving areas where available methods may not be adequate for real psychological data, or where a research question may not be addressed using standard analysis techniques. Specifically, she investigates Bayesian estimation as a tool to help overcome estimation and modeling challenges. She has done work to develop Bayesian estimation of Structural Equation Models for modeling items with low endorsement by incorporating common sense, “moderate” prior knowledge into the analysis. Recently she has been focused on Bayesian variable selection (SSVSforPsych) to identify important predictors in psychological data. You can learn more adout Dr. Bainter on her personal website.

Christina Cordero – Christina is a postdoctoral fellow in cardiovascular behavioral medicine. Her research interests include: women's health, pregnancy, cardiovascular disease, child development, and health disparities. She is involved in HCHS/SOL, SOLYouth, Que Pasa U?, and the UCope studies. She is also a member of the Women's Health and Pregnancy Scientific Interest Group in SOL.

David Goldsztajn Falero – David is a social psychologist with broad interests in sociocultural factors, health behaviors and their role in cardiovascular health. He is funded on a T32 as a postdoctoral fellow in cardiovascular behavioral medicine. He is also interested in technology as a tool to uncover associations between health behaviors and health outcomes. Currently he is involved in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) and the Que Pasa U? studies. The latter is a pilot study of the Spanish language and its role in regulating cardiovascular reactivity in response to emotional stress. Among several projects, he is developing a dictionary to code emotional text in Spanish and exploring sociodemographic factors associated with optimism in Hispanics.

Zach Goodman - Zach is broadly interested in psychometrics and the modeling of neurocognitive functioning and psychopathology. Specifically, he is interested in applying advanced quantitative methodologies, including latent variable models, network analyses, and item response theory, toward understanding the measurement, structure, and phenomenology of psychopathology and neuropsychological disorders.

Marisa Perera – Marisa's primary research interests concern the biobehavioral risk processes that lead to the development of chronic health conditions in immigrant ethnic minority populations in the United States, including Spanish-speaking populations and South Asian Americans. Marisa's interests also include better understanding the psychological and chronic disease risks related to pregnancy that are posed to ethnic minority women. She supplements these lines of research with psychometric investigation of the validity and reliability of psychological assessments for use with minority populations.

Liana Preudhomme - is a doctoral student in the Health Track of the Clinical Psychology program. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Georgetown University in 2014. After graduating, she worked as a medical assistant in Washington, D.C. for three years while completing post-baccalaureate coursework in Psychology at Georgetown University. Before joining the University of Miami, Liana worked as a research assistant in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Georgetown University for one year. She also worked as a research assistant in the PsychoHairapy lab at the University of the District of Columbia for two years. Currently, Liana is highly interested in studying the effects of psychosocial factors, such as perceived discrimination, and gene-environment interactions on hypertension among Hispanics/Latinos.